PONDERABLES
Is Justin Trudeau ever going to answer the question he’s asked?
Why do so many people start sentences with the meaningless phrase “I mean?
Why aren’t there laws preventing drug companies from printing dosages and warnings in letters so small that the Hubble space telescope is needed to read them?
THINGS I FIRMLY BELIEVE
When judging charitable donations, we should always consider how much donors have left as well as how much they gave; a poor widow’s gift of $50 is as praiseworthy as a $50 million donation by Bill Gates or Warren Buffett.
There are many different ways to judge whether a day is good.
ANOTHER COUNTRY SONG TITLE GEM
It’s Hard To Kiss The Lips At Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long
A FARCICAL “DEBATE”
Last Monday’s so-called party leaders “debate” was a complete farce, so much so that it’s impossible to rank its shortcomings; but the following questions highlight the lowlights.
Why have an incomprehensible format? Even the leaders themselves, whom I assume were adequately briefed, couldn’t follow it and got hopelessly confused. And then, because of a lack of control by a couple of the moderators, the segment timing rules were changed on the fly, adding to the already considerable confusion.
Why have five moderators, hosts, or whatever they were supposed to be, especially when two of them were clearly in over their heads and were unable to stem the cacophony of two or more people talking at once nor control the time allocations? One tough, competent broadcaster would suffice; especially if he or she had the power to require a leader to answer the question asked, and also had a “mute” button to silence the mic of any leader encroaching on another’s time.
Why were Yves-Francois Blanchet and Maxim Bernier even there? Blanchet’s party runs candidates only in Quebec and is dedicated to breaking up our country. Mad Max is “leader” of a disgruntled splinter group masquerading as a legitimate political party with no seats in parliament (he won his seat as a Conservative).
Why did leaders waste precious time thanking people for their questions? And why waste additional time inserting planted questions from other parts of the country? Canada is too big to effectively achieve any kind of geographic political correctness, so why even try?
Why did it start at 7:00 EDT thereby depriving many western Canadians from the chance to watch it live?
I’m not sure exactly what that television show was, but it certainly wasn’t by any definition a debate.
BASEBALL IDIOCIES
Insisting that batters take a 3-0 pitch when it’s almost always the best pitch that they’ll see that week.
Relief pitchers warming up on the mound when they come into a game; that’s what they’ve been doing in the bullpen for the last five or ten minutes.
Allowing batters to call time when the pitcher is already in his wind-up, and also allowing them to step out of the batters box as often as they like.
Hometown scorers awarding hits on obvious errors; which skews both hitting and pitching stats.
Accepting that players no longer have to know how to bunt or to hit the opposite way during the odious “shift.”
The rule that a starting pitcher can be charged with a loss even if he throws only one pitch, but has to complete the first five innings to get a win.
And the most idiotic of all: pitchers batting in National League parks.
HOCKEY IDIOCIES
The concept of “let them play,” when everybody knows that a non-call is just as apt to affect an outcome as is a penalty.
Not having to play short-handed for fighting majors.
Allowing a team to call up a replacement for a suspended player.
Players not hustling to the bench to retrieve a new stick when theirs is broken.
Not introducing a rule providing that unless a goal is scored or a penalty called players must change on the fly.
Assessing a double-minor only if blood is drawn.
The goalie trapezoid, a shining example of a cure for which there’s no known disease
The shoot-out.
And the most idiotic of all: the salary cap. A franchise that can’t afford to pay its stars doesn’t deserve to have a team.